In the age of online banking, I don’t get this story
A UN official has challenged the government to reach out to Kenyans trapped in lockdowns abroad and cushion them from the high cost of sending money back home.
United Nations Economic Development for Africa (UNECA) economic division director Stephen Karingi said that by taking such measures, Kenya can protect remittances from dipping.
“The government should reach out to families that cannot access remittance services to send money back home due to total shutdowns in their host countries,” Mr Karingi said in an interview with BBC. The cost of remittances currently stands at 10.51 percent for Canada, 7.5 from the US, and 6.34 percent for the UK.
I guess many people send directly to mpesa or equitel accounts of recipients using western union or worldremit. Charges are not 10% though, may be slightly less.
Yeah, I strongly recommend a local USD bank account where USD to KES rate can be negotiated (online), if you let anyone do that conversion on the fly be it mpesa or whatnot, you lose almost 5% right there
Being a recipient, my kins are charged 3% by sendwave. They take 3 shillings for every 100 you send. The one they are taking of is western union and moneygram
Unless you are sending some ridiculous amount of money, wire transfers are expensive for the average guy.
This is one industry that is ripe for innovation though. Yaani unaosha mkundu and pay taxes on your wages. If you decide to send money you have guys on both ends waiting for you cup in hand again.
I made a mistake of moving funds from Std chartered int. a/c. to local co-op bank,in my head i was sure of the amount banked after commissions and what-nots, 3 month later i pop in the bank and the fukkers deducted 15k . Nilifunga account on the spot. These days i prefer going through immigration with the stipulated amount then nipitie pale kwa ndugu ya bingwa tunegotiate commision,otherwise,i use cash cards,not local ones tho,too many loopholes